Dire times …

[Haiku]

We’re upon these … now! They come in many aspects and dimensions of large and small.

This is a place to note these dire moments … if you like. This is not just the big events although they are welcome too … it’s for the lesser ones that we all come across in our everyday lives in this reality, directly or indirectly. We may find that we have commonality in what’s happening around us … how about the cost of living and how everything is costing the common man more. Like the elder woman in the store who can’t even afford the necessities to survive on now, I sense that there are some here in this same situation.

Dire … the definition says …

1. causing or involving great fear or suffering; dreadful; terrible:

a dire calamity.

1. indicating trouble, disaster, misfortune, or the like:

dire predictions about the stock market.

1. urgent; desperate:

in dire need of food.

Wow, what a word to use.

Here are synonyms from my thesaurus

urgent; crucial

acute, critical, desperate, drastic, extreme

burning, clamant, clamorous, climacteric, crying, exigent, immoderate, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing

terrible, ominous

alarming, appalling, awful, calamitous, cataclysmic, catastrophic, depressing, disastrous, dismal, distressing, dreadful, gloomy, grim, horrible, lamentable, shocking, ugly, unfortunate

afflictive, black, cruel, deplorable, fearful, fierce, frightful, grievous, heartbreaking, horrid, oppressing, portentous, redoubtable, regrettable, ruinous, scowling, terrific, woeful

Gads, the more I look into this the worse it gets.

My own situation is with my company, it is a semiconductor support company, since most of this was done overseas, we were able to sell product to them. Now with the tariffs, it’s getting dire not only for the company but all the employees. We were already slow as they took 20% of my hours away from me a year ago … today they took another 20% … so I’m down to a three-day work schedule. Loosing 40% of my salary is detrimental to my household here in California, USA. I’ll eventually be part of the exodus of California most likely in the next year because of this. It was good thing I was working on this already from knowledge I gained from here, I know many will not be as fortunate … I predicted this already.

So, if you want to share your dire consequence, feel free to state it here … others need to know that they are not alone. I saw almost a thousand visitors on the C’s website today, these are the ones that are waiting for your response … and a reason to sign on here. Ta-ta for now, Haiku …

 

[Mark7]

today they took another 20% … so I’m down to a three-day work schedule. Loosing 40% of my salary is detrimental to my household here in California, USA. I’ll eventually be part of the exodus of California most likely in the next year because of this.

Sometimes it's swimming through mud, like crawling out of a slippery hole, only to be knocked back to the bottom as soon as you get to the top, and it's never easy in the trenches. Losing 40% of your salary is tough, but you are 40% more open to new possibilities. It's hard to see your 'cubic centimeter of chance' if you have your nose to the grindstone all of the time. Much of my working life, I felt like I just could never make enough money 'to escape', or at least advance to an easier job. I think the C's said something about the whole work-a-day world being a trap. Entrepreneurship is no walk in the park either.

“All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.”​

― Carlos Castaneda

 

[Alejo]

That's tough Haiku,

I'm sorry to learn that, and it'll be tough for a while as there's a lot of uncertainty everywhere. I haven't felt some of those consequences yet, but I feel they're coming, as the company I work for does have a decent portion that is imported, but also a lot of our clientele will be affected similar to you, our main market is California, so it'll go around.

Do you have family or dependents? Given that amount of money loss, can you apply for unemployment to help ease the hardship?

 

[Haiku]

Thank you for the kind words, we’ll weather this like we’ve always done. As I said, I’ve been preparing to leave CA for land near North in SC anyway. I was hoping to do it in 3 years, but you know how evil is, they just love to step on the little guy … I can live in a 200ft2 shack on retirement if I need to. Unemployment, I haven’t thought of … I’ll work on it.



This is a portion of the prologue from my latest rewrite of my book ‘Life in a Bottle’. As you can read, dire times is even affecting my writing, which isn’t all bad.

‘A place of safety, it’s all we ever ask … somewhere that we can easily get to … somewhere you can close a door and feel secure … somewhere you can close your eyes and sleep with confidence that you won’t be violated. It could be a tent, a shed or a castle, wherever it is, you feel safe there. The thought is centered on you putting yourself in a container and corking it sealed and all the world as it is stays outside of it … for the night.

Like a bottle.

And like a bottle, it can change in size as needed … you make the choice of who you let in your space, your bottle. And by adding others, it makes your bottle either stronger or weaker depending on your selections … you have to choose wisely or your bottle will shatter leaving you in the open without a safe place. And you can’t just hide in your bottle, that’s called frosting … as they will still figure out a way to find you.

A word of warning … half the people in the world out there are trying to steal what you have in your bottle, the bottle itself or they have a plan on shattering it … just so you don’t have it. It could be one soul or a grouping of them, they either want to make themselves better off or make you the lesser … mostly the latter.

To them, you are disposable commodity for their use until you have no further value to them …’

Evil never rests … they just want all of us good people to quit ruining their plans …

 

[Cat_Sass]

You can live pretty well in an 8x32ft RV; I've been doing it for about 10 years. You can get a small plot of land, or you can live in an RV park. I've done both. Right now, I'm living behind my sister's house.

 

[Alejo]

You're right, this is an STS reality after all.

Maybe focusing on the practical steps to make your plans a reality might go a longer way. Do you have any savings that you could invest? Is there any other possibility for employment that is practical with your daily life?

Sometimes, the best one can do to the spread of evil and their machinations, is to react unexpectedly, if they seek drown us in misery, and thus freeze us into inaction, then acting might be the best response.

Best of luck! and keep us posted!

 

[Breo]

Sorry to read about your challenges, Haiku.
Above, you write about "a safe place". Maybe it will help you to search for it´s meaning in practical terms. What does it stand for, for you - in reality? Maybe then it might be more feasible to build a step by step plan, what´s the next right thing to do. Osit :) All the best!

 

[seve]

I believe it's vital to detach ourselves from our old reference points (salary, security...) in order to face the unexpected and the uncomfortable. I realized that the criteria of inner stability prevented me from reasoning calmly when the situation got tough, too many limiting emotions. I felt a panic of fear when I heard about diminishing resources. And that's what happened to me in 2021 following my resignation. Since then, I've earned half as much as before, but above all I've overcome my panic fear. There are always solutions and now I can face up to precarious situations with more strength.